The Lie Of Society

Today I wanted to talk about a lie that is very prevalent today.

What? Instant love? How can you know someone well enough to trust them with your heart after only a few moments? How can you even know you love someone you just met?

Love is not instant.

Butterflies are instant. Lust is instant. Mutual like can be instant too! But love is NOT instant and if you live that way you are just setting yourself up for a broken heart and crushed expectations. Because what many people call "love" is just lust and butterflies, coupled with the newness of a relationship. And those things, while wonderful and sweet and part of a budding intimacy--are not love. And they do not last.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love is so much deeper. Love is sacrifice. For me, love is when my husband gets up in the middle of the night just to get me a drink of water even through he is tired. Love is when he laughs when I burn dinner. Love is when he forgives me when I hurt him, or when I take him for granted, or when I lie to him. Love is his daily sacrifice--when he spends his free time with me, and trusts me with all the fragile places in his heart. Love is my husbands choice--a choice he has to work hard on, because I see love in so many different ways then he does. I, also, must choose to love him. Our love grows every day. The feeling I felt when we first met? It was wonderful--and true--but it pales in comparison to the deep well of love we are digging for ourselves, with God, in our marriage.

Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds / Or bends with the remover to remove / O no! it is an ever-fixed mark / That looks on tempests and is never shaken. / It is the star to every wandering bark / Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken / Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks / Within his bending sickle's compass come: / Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks / But bears it out even to the edge of doom / If this be error and upon me proved

What do you guys think? Do you think society has it wrong? Love is not instant. Lattes are instant. Pizza and cheeseburgers are instant. So many instant things in this world, so many quick satisfactions. Love is NOT one of those things, and if you treat it that way, you will only wade in the shallow water when a deeper well beckons.